git repository now contains everthing to "make run"

[BrownSky]

OK!

$ git pull; make clean-git; make run RO_GAME_DIR=/usr/share/games/rocksndiamonds RW_GAME_DIR=/var/games/rocksndiamonds

... RnD pops up! With visible mouse cursor (when I move it) in the splash screen!

Hi, I'm revealing a woeful lack of understanding by asking this, but I will go ahead:

Is there any way I can run the command above on Windows, and have it generate a RnD executable for me? (I assume that generating a RnD executable is what the commands above are resulting in, as opposed to an interpreted form of RnD.)

If it can be done on Windows, and anyone is able to specify the things to install to be able to do that ... and any other tips and tricks... I would be most grateful.

John

[Holger]

Yes, this should still be possible (and I did it myself many years agon when I had a Windows installation with Cygwin environment installed on it).

You need a decent terminal that runs bash, a C compiler (probably you want to use MinGW) and build tools like "make".

Doing this will require some Linux/Unix skills, and it may be too hard to try for a typical Windows user who is most comfortable with using only the graphical user interface.

[BrownSky]

Is there anyone (not necessarily Holger) who has done this before, even if in the distant past, who would be willing to try again, and publish a step-by-step guide to compiling RnD from sourcecode on Windows?

Sorry for the feeble nature of this request, it breaks the cardinal rule of at least getting to a certain point and then reporting back where/how you got stuck. I did try a year or so ago but I got hopelessly confused at the point of trying to pick which variants of programs and libraries etc to download and install. Too many options, too many choices = "always outnumbered, always outgunned"

John

[Holger]

In my opinion, finding out what you need to do to write, compile and run a most simple "Hello, world!" program is the most basic skill that you really should try for yourself first, without anyone else helping out (at least from the R'n'D forum). There are more resources available on the web on this topic (for even the most exotic operating systems) than I could have ever dreamed of when I started my first steps in programming when I was about 15 years old back in the eighties (when we had nothing but books about that).

If you have managed these first steps, I will happily help out if you should have any problems doing a "git pull" on the R'n'D source code and a "make" to compile it.

[Holger]

Just after writing that last post, I read the following blog post about AI assisted coding:

https://harper.blog/2025/04/17/an-llm-c ... s-journey/

Why bother writing code yourself anymore? Oh dear, I really feel like an old programming fart...

[filbo]

There are more resources available on the web on this topic (for even the most exotic operating systems)

But that's kind of the problem. There are so many resources, and they all disagree with each other, and many of them are old and cover environments which no longer exist or are deprecated, or do still exist but the details on where to get them and how to use them are grossly out of date.

The issue here is not 'how do I bring up a C programming environment on Windows', but 'which of the many such choices is actually appropriate for building RnD; and then, how do I fire it up, since the answers are going to be different for MingWhatev vs MS C vs ???'

[Holger]

But that's kind of the problem. There are so many resources, and they all disagree with each other, and many of them are old and cover environments which no longer exist or are deprecated, or do still exist but the details on where to get them and how to use them are grossly out of date.

That's very true! And this is indeed the downside of having so many choices right at hand today. *sigh*

The issue here is not 'how do I bring up a C programming environment on Windows', but 'which of the many such choices is actually appropriate for building RnD; and then, how do I fire it up, since the answers are going to be different for MingWhatev vs MS C vs ???'

And I do agree that the devil is in the detail, which you have properly named here (at least some of them).

The most important one is indeed that "MS C" is really not a very good C compiler (although it is said to be a very good C++ compiler, but that's a totally different story when you want to program in pure C), and I know that you can run into problems if you try to use that C compiler to compile R'n'D (because it does not fully support C99, which R'n'D uses). And then one has to know that there's a C compiler for Windows out there that's called "MinGW".

So I've just tried the following to get started with that C compiler on Windows 10:

Enter the above, but slightly modified query into Google:

"how do I bring up a mingw C programming environment on Windows 10"

This got me a "People also ask: How to setup MinGW on Windows 10?" right at the start of the results page.

This in turn got me the following YouTube video right below that alternative question, as the first result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KayVZq1a58

This is for Wondows 11, not 10, but this should not make that big of a difference here (at least I hope so). I had a quick glance over that video, and it looks quite nice, doing just what I stated above: Install a C compiler, create a "hello.c" using Notepad, and compile it by manually invoking the C compiler on that file in a terminal window.

If you get that far, you are already close to what you want to do in the first place (compile R'n'D).

An even better and easier approach might still be to just install a Cygwin environment:

https://www.cygwin.com/

This got me running on Windows a long time ago, and I don't know if it still works that nicely as it did about 10 to 15 years ago. But this gets you a very complete Unix-like environment on Windows, and I successfully used that to "make" and "make run" R'n'D on a Windows netbook for some time to create, test and troubleshoot the Windows version of R'n'D (while nowadays I simply only use a cross-compiler and hope for the best ).

Maybe one of these two paths might work for Windows users who want to compile and run R'n'D from source code on Windows today!

I would be happy to hear if this works for any Windows user out there, and I will happily (try to) help out, if needed!